Anchors
by luminous lullaby
Summary: Wherever you go, I will anchor you. Bella/Edward.
1. Summer Skin

_**Anchors**_

One:_ Summer Skin_

_Author's Note:_ So here goes my little collection of One Shots that may or may not be updated frequently. Hopefully the former provided I have enough time

* * *

_I lay beneath him, inhaling his intoxicating aroma like it was the only thing to sustain me. He shifted slightly, and I noticed the gold comforter had graced our shoulders, enveloping us in a warm cocoon. _

_Clothes were made scarce, and soon we were unstoppable._

* * *

"I didn't know you were so interested in anatomy, Bella." His voice vibrated sweetly in my ear as he approached me. The velvetiness of it all drug me away from my daydream that his and Carlisle's textbooks had directed me to. 

"I got a little bored waiting for you. They seem entertaining; I didn't know it took so many muscles to smile." I replied, shutting the old book softly. My eyes fluttered back to his freshly topaz ones, which sparkled at my curiosity.

"Bella that book is terribly outdated. That's from my first time at medical school, Harvard. It was in the early nineteen-forties." I gaped at him as he took the book and looked at it nostalgically. He had written notes in the margins – mnemonics, jokes, anything to help him remember.

He laughed at a forgotten mnemonic. "I prefer my asparagus toasted. Obviously that one worked. You definitely wouldn't need it." He remarked, flipping to a page in the tattered book.

"Wait, what is 'I prefer my asparagus toasted'?" I had never heard of that one, odd, but easy to memorize. I smiled; it was a very "Edward" phrase. Nowadays, the mnemonics for anatomy were normally just dirty jokes that always had made me blush during biology tests.

"You honestly can't think of anything that fits it?" I shook my head no. He smirked, and said simply, as if it were as easy as singing the_ ABCs_. "Interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase. Cell duplication. First lab we did together in biology…" He hinted, and I finally remembered.

With a smile I replied quietly, "yeah, the day I totally spilled my entire life story to you." I sighed at the memory, he had been so curious about my life. Little did I know at the time he had just wanted to see why he couldn't read my mind.

"Do you want to learn anatomy?" He asked abruptly, shaking me from reliving the first few weeks of our relationship.

"Huh? Oh... Sure." My voice questioned his intentions until I saw him flash me a smile that showed only half his teeth. His freshly fed eyes had a pale glow to them that alluded to mischief, and made my mind reel with every step he took towards me. In a blur, he had me laying down on his plush bed, anatomy texts forgotten across the room. "No books?" I said, calling him out on whatever non-educational intentions he had.

"I've been through medical school twice – Ivy both time, I hope I don't need any of those." And with that he was over me, ravishing my face and neck with feather-light kisses. His lips danced across my skin, leaving my skin with the sensation of pins and needles. My breath came out in a hiss as his lips went lower, kissing the row of buttons on the Oxford shirt I was wearing. He kissed the skin that was exposed between my shirt hem and my pants, making me gasp as the sensitive skin was acknowledged.

"Anatomy…" I breathed, trying to gain some control over the situation. He laughed lightly and his cool breath tickled the skin on my lower abdomen. My chest heaved, finally taking a full breath to inhale his dreamy scent, when he stopped his ministrations and climbed back up my body so that we were face to face with each other. Lightly, he traced the sides of my face, starting with my forehead, ending with my chin.

"To Zanzibar by motor car." He whispered into my ear. His lips tickled the knob of my ear, and I felt his sharp teeth lightly graze it as well.

"Why would you drive to Zanzibar, Edward? It's an island you – " I was cut off by his lips on mine, silencing me. It was another mnemonic, I realized, back to anatomy.

"Temporal," he said, pausing over my temple and kissing me there. He let his fingers trace the path that I assumed was the branch that controlled the muscles beneath. "This is the one that you use when you're angry with me, when you furrow your eyebrow."

"Zygomatic," he said, lowering himself again toward my temple, but this time he traced a line under my eye and toward the bridge of my nose. "Whenever you would sleep, this is the one that kept your lovely eyes closed and dreaming of inexplicable things." He grinned at my expense, and I glanced down, embarrassed.

"Buccal," again he moved his face towards mine, this time moving further down the side of my face, as he planted a kiss on the edge of my cheek bone. "And when you laugh, smile, or even smirk at me, this is the lovely nerve that ignites that reaction." I smiled at him, emphasizing the upward pull.

"Mandibular," a kiss was placed on my chin. "For every pout that has won me over…"

"Finally, cervical." He frowned before he kissed me low on my jaw. "This one is responsible for every frown. Although, I can be held accountable for many of them as well…" He said solemnly. He knelt next to me and held my hand in his, pressing the crescent shaped scar to his lips. His eyes caught mine, and begged me silently. I nodded slightly; this was our way of healing. We would comfort each other silently; words were too easy to interpret. Vagueness meant that only we could truly understand what was going on.

He moved to lie next to me "I think that's enough anatomy for now," he said quietly. He ran a finger down my arm, tracing the light pink lines that ran down my shirt. I mimicked him by deftly unbuttoning his white shirt and letting a hand rest on his abdomen.

Our eyes never separated as we continued tracing each other, remembering how our contrasting temperatures used to feel.


	2. Three Wishes

_**Anchors**_

Two: _Three Wishes_

_Author's Note:_ By the way, these stories are not in chronological order. Sherman Alexie is sure getting to me…�

* * *

She pressed her fingers to my forehead, then my cheek, my lips, my eyes, and every part of my body that she could reach without moving her sore body. Her breath came out erratically, as if she couldn't quite figure out how to catch it. She frantically tried to move to get out of _our_ bed, but she couldn't quite will her legs to swing out from under her. Her divine chocolate hair had fallen astray from the ponytail that had been secured all that time ago, and her inhuman thrashing had nearly ripped completely her shirt. Another great tremor from her feats shook the bed, and I shifted slightly to make the act of moving a bit easier for her. 

I frowned at her struggling, and she mistook it for something different completely. 

"Oh no, Edward… I'm not, too different, am I?" She struggled for words as her mind crept out of its dormancy. Of course she was not too different. She would never change in my eyes. She was always _my _Bella. I put my arm around her waist and pulled her up into a sitting position across from me, her tired but sleepless body was supported by the wrought-iron bed frame. I pushed a flyway out of a blinking eye, and kissed above her forehead softly before resting mine gently against it. 

"Edward… Speak," she spoke smoothly now, trying to coax me out of my thoughts. I couldn't be drug from admiring her now. She was tantalizing before, mouthwatering even, for more than a few reasons, but now… I studied her, every curve, every angle, and the soft wave of her flyaway hair. Her eyes furrowed with anticipation and I could see her mentally checking herself now too. She wiggled toes that tickled underneath me; she experimented with lifting her weak arm up to examine herself. With no luck on her own, I took her small hand within mine and lightly traced her with her own fingertips. She felt her own smooth skin beneath her fingers and smiled to me. I moved her hands all over, her hair, her neck, her chest, and her stomach. I sighed as she motioned for me to stop. I could see her slowly discover herself for all of time, but I knew she had other plans to fulfill. 

She blinked a few times at me, and then glanced down at her own clothing – realizing what probably happened in the amount of time that rebelled that of a decade. Her automatic glancing down followed, and she looked as adorable as always. Quickly, I got up to her dresser drawer that had been neatly stocked with the essentials. I glanced back at her, silently asking for permission. She shook her head slightly and motioned toward my closet. 

"I want to wear one of your shirts… They're comfy and they smell like you." I smiled at the mere thought of her wearing my clothes and grabbed a very old Yale swim team shirt for her to don. She smiled in silent thanks, and I turned so that she could change in peace. 

"Edward, I can't reach over my head." She said quietly, her voice had lost the shake it used to have, but I could tell when she was embarrassed no matter the circumstances. I turned to see a slightly frustrated Bella staring back at me, holding the t-shirt far away from herself. I grinned at her crookedly, and immediately her expression changed and she let out a slight giggle. 

"I guess you have some reason to be exhausted, love. You almost got out of Emmett's grip, you were _this close._" Finally I spoke, crossing the room at a uniformly slow pace, she needed to adjust to the lovely inhuman senses she had just acquired. Her beautiful grin widened, and I lightly took the shreds that was the cotton t-shirt she had been wearing off of her. They fluttered lightly to the ground, leaving me time to admire her exquisite form. Again, she glanced down, making it impossible for me to make eye contact with her. I trailed my finger from her collarbone up to right below her chin, lightly lifting it up so that I could meet her lips softly with my own. As we parted, I slipped the too-large-for-her shirt over her head and helped her get through the sleeves. She smiled sheepishly as I moved to sit next to her. I took her small left hand in mine and examined the long fingers expertly, making sure _nothing_ had gone wrong. 

Her wedding ring twinkled in the haze of twilight, and I glanced up at her quickly. Her gazed was fixed solemnly on her finger, and she moved her right hand so that she could twirl the ring around her slender finger. 

"No matter what you may think, I'm glad about this." I sighed, and she moved, with a struggle that she kept silent, to straddle me and sit back on my lap. I leaned back against the tough frame, and put my hands on her smooth hips, tracing the hem of the navy shirt. 

"It's not that Bella. You probably can't even begin to understand what it is like for me to know that _I_ get to spend the rest of eternity – hopefully – with you in my arms. It's just…" I trailed off, too self-loathing to go on. She sighed and, without warning, planted moist lips to my cheek. 

"When will _you_understand…" She continued placing kisses around my face, my neck, and my chest. 

"Bella…" I started, trying to figure out a way to say it completely, "love didn't want me, but I took it anyway." 

"Well aren't I glad you're a kleptomaniac?" 


	3. Orion

_**Anchors**_

Three: _Orion_

_Author's Note:_ Bella gets to suffer through what I've just been going through the last few days – gross!

* * *

Charlie's thoughts seemed to have quieted down for the night; his unconscious was filed with muted thoughts of his work, his beautiful daughter, and the event that would occur in four days – our lawful union.

A breeze drew air from her room and brought the scent from her room towards me. I caught a sample of her maliciously sweet scented forbidden blood. I inhaled deeply, satisfying the monster and the lover inside. However, something caught my attention. Her blood had a weird twinge at the end that never was present before. Carlisle often comes home with that same twist… He must've brought some scent home from the hospital and passed it on to her.

I leapt quietly from the roof, through the open window, into Bella's room. Her lights were shut off and I could here the quiet tone of my piano music softly fill her small room. She lay on her back, her body contorted in the most odd way, probably to find an accommodating position for her back. I had caught her rubbing her head and back all day today when we were passing time at my house, trying to avoid Alice and Esme's brigade of wedding information.

Her pulse was set at an irregular rhythm and her breathing was strained as a delicate chill took her body. Before I reached her bed, Bella whispered something almost inaudible to me.

"_Cold, so cold. Edward…" _I quickly climbed on to her bed, careful not to get under her sheets and make her even more chilled. The small bed frame made a noise in protest at my weight, as it did every night. I ignored it, and put a hand to my love's forehead.

Bella opened her eyes groggily and stared at me with a blank expression on her face. Her beautiful dark brown eyes were staring at me through thick and glazed over lenses. Under her eyes were red signs of engorged capillaries, and the half moons of skin under her eyes were swollen with insomnia. I slowly continued to examine her between her intervals of shivering. I felt her glands in her neck, and after examining each one I placed a delicate kiss on top of it. Her body relaxed a bit after that, but I still noticed her questioning expression that was well hidden through her mask of sickness.

"Bella, Love, is your throat irritating you?" I hovered above her, trying to decipher what was wrong with her. She nodded once, her eyes never leaving my calculating face. I had in fact, been through medical schooling twice, yet I've never completed a residency program or anything of the like. I had little to no idea about how do go about public healthcare. What I knew about actually examining patients came from what little information about bedside manner that my textbooks provided.

I pushed her comforter around her tighter, tucking her into a cocoon that would hopefully trap the heat of her shivers. Knowing that would surely not aid her fever, I leapt up from her bed and raced to her bathroom to get some medicine. When I returned back to her room, she was starting to get into a sitting position.

"Bella, Love, you need to lay down, you need to rest." I sighed, handing her the glass of tap water and generic acetomorphine. She drank the water deeply, allowing little time between sips to catch her breath. When she finished she set the glass down lightly on her bedside table, flicking on the light as well. I groaned knowing that now she was fully awake.

"Thank you for helping my throat, Edward." Her voice was quiet and muted by her flaring up sinuses. Even though her hair stuck to her clammy forehead, her eyes had a sad glisten to them, and she smelled different I couldn't get over how beautiful she even looked when she was sick, how beautiful she even _sounded_ when she was sick. This priceless hidden gemstone of artistry had tripped into my life, and it was my turn to take care of it.

"No problem, Love." She groaned a bit in protest as I picked up her light frame and laid her down across the bed. "I'll keep the light on, I just want you to keep your head in line with your heart and tilted back a bit, so your nose won't get blocked." She curled into my body through the many sets of sheets that were strewn across her bed, and I instantly was glad I had some way to help decrease her fever.

"Bella, do you feel dizzy when you stand?" I whispered as soft as I could manage into her ear. I felt my lips touch her ear, and I immediately stiffened my body swiftly, so that she wouldn't notice that I even had to restrain my self when she was ill. It was barbaric of me, to not only want her blood, tainted as it was with virus it still called my name loudly, but to want her body at the same time… How was she supposed to rest if I was here, staring at her, salivating?

I got up from her bed, softly pushing her away from me. It killed me doubly inside, to know that she was feeling rejection so that I could control my instincts.

"No…" Her voice fluctuated at the end when she saw me go towards the window, but I had just made a b-line to shut it. I continued my path to her rocking chair, and sat in it gingerly, hoping that it wouldn't make too many screeching sounds.

"You don't feel dizzy? Sore? Tired?" I rattled off symptoms that were characteristic of the viral bugs that I had studied while in school years ago. Carlisle was far more up to date than I was, I would be better off dragging her over to my house and getting her examined by the real physician.

"No… I said 'no' before to you… leaving. I feel all of the above, but I feel better with you by me. You keep me from shivering." Her voice was quiet at the end, measured. She slowly got up from her bed and crossed the room towards me. I got up before she could reach me, and ran over to the bed to grab her a blanket. She smirked as I picked her up gingerly and set her in my hard lap, trying to morph my body into the most comfortable position.

She frowned at me keeping her at a slight distance, "what, can I actually get _you_ sick, Edward?" I sighed and shook my head at her. "Good." She crept closer to me, burying her face in my neck and pulling the light blanket over the both of us. Her malleable and flushed lips pressed dainty kisses to my neck, and I exhaled in deep satisfaction.

"Edward…" She started, pressing her nose to my coronary as I do to hers. She kissed me there again, and without moving she added, "You never have to resent your…_instincts…_around me. Especially around me." She pressed her cheek against my chest, a position I knew was uncomfortable to her but she lay there anyway, and if I had a heartbeat, I was sure it would be racing.


End file.
